ARTICLES ABOUT CRAFT BEER BY DATE - PAGE 4

For David April, the improbable road from Fishtown to GQ Spain started with a run and ended with a beer. A Kenzinger, no doubt. And a toast. "To the professor!" "To the professor!" echoed the endorphined crowd Thursday night at the American Sardine Bar in Point Breeze. To the professor? Is this Gilligan's Island? A brainy fraternity? No, it is the Fishtown Beer Runners' weekly homage to the scholar - Professor Manuel J. Castillo of the School of Medicine, University of Granada, Spain - who supplied them with a rather happy, not to mention hoppy, organizing principle.

A giant Hershey bar brushed past me, waved, and stepped onto the escalator - and I'll admit I did a double take. It was morning. Hadn't had my coffee. And the prospect of breakfasting with a cast of human-sized Kit Kat bars and York Peppermint Patties at the Hershey Lodge was only just coming into focus. Of course there were walking Reese's Peanut Butter Cups here: Central Pennsylvania's cocoa capital, a playland of amusement rides, endless sweets, and candy-themed attractions that run straight through the holidays, is where every kid's chocolate fantasies can almost come to life.

IN HONOR OF the centennial anniversary of its sinking on April 5, 1912, the Franklin Institute offers "Titanic: The Artifact Exhibition," Saturday through April 7, 2013. The show illustrates the ship's conception, aftermath and, of course, its ill-fated maiden voyage. What separates this from many other Titanic centenary activities is its focus on the personal stories associated with certain artifacts. Objects include a set of tiny perfume bottles - some still containing their original perfumes - a salesman was taking to the U.S., and the iconic cherub statue that graced the ship's Grand Staircase, an artifact never before seen in museums.

Two downtown restaurateurs - Rob Wasserman (Rouge, 500 Degrees) and chef Michael Schulson (Sampan, Izakaya) - have ventured into the Main Line with the Saint James (30 Parking Plaza, Ardmore, 610-649-6200), an American bistro in Suburban Square. Chris Sheffield of SLDesign created an open, lived-in look, with a skylight in the foyer, wooden tables, leather- and wool-covered booths, and white brick walls. It's an amalgam of Pottery Barn and Crate & Barrel, with a dash of Anthropologie.

FORGET SOCCER MOMS and NASCAR dads. In November, the presidency could go to the candidate who attracts the most craft-beer drinkers. Don't laugh, because it appears President Obama's re-election campaign has already taken note of an astounding phenomenon in 2008 election results - with the hope of a suds-soaked repeat in 2012. It's a stunning and previously unnoticed voting trend that almost certainly explains the presence last week of a craft brewer among the Democratic National Convention speakers, as well as the recent release of the Obama White House home-brew recipes.

A 3 1/2-barrel handmade batch of pale ale is simmering just over his shoulder, filling the garage-size brewery with the sweetest aroma known to man, when Tim Hanna, one of four partners in the brand-new Tuckahoe Brewing Co., mentions the unfortunate gorilla in the room: "We're never going to totally get past C oors Light and M iller Lite down here. " "Down here" is the Jersey Shore, land of Snooki and Smirnoff Ice. Down here, "good beer" means it's cold, wet and half-price during happy hour.

OCEAN VIEW, N.J. - Matt McDevitt spent years living the dream of every grown-up Jersey Shore kid: teach high school during the year, work the beach patrol during summer; in his case, the Sacramento beach in Ventnor. But this year, McDevitt and three buddies, two of them also teachers at Mainland Regional High School, will spend summer chasing an even more tantalizing beach dream: presiding over their own brewery, the Tuckahoe Brewing Co., creating recipes inspired by everything from warm summer days (Marshallville Wit)

Scott Rudich got a text one November night from his pal Rich DiLiberto, who was in a bar drinking bad beer and listening to a bad cover band. "We should either start a brewery or a band," DiLiberto wrote. Rudich's reply: "Neither of us play instruments. " And so it was that the grains of Round Guys Brewery were set to steep. Of course, that dream would ferment for nearly 31/2 years before these two pharmaceutical workers would finally open the doors to their Lansdale brewery in early March, when Rudich could legitimately pick up the phone and say with a wink: "Hello, I am the yeast whisperer.

SAN DIEGO — The loneliest guy at BrewExpo America had to be Ales Kopecky, a Czech farmer who came to the annual beer-making trade show to promote his old-world Saaz hops. The Saaz variety may be the noblest of the so-called "noble hops," providing the distinctive flavor and palate-cleansing bitterness to pilsners and other styles. Yet few brewers lined up to savor the aroma from the pile of dried hops scattered atop Kopecky's booth. They were drawn instead to the Hopsteiner booth, where the multinational company was showing off its new Calypso hops variety.